Hepatitis B Drug Recommended

U.S. & LATIN AMERICA - The Nation - In Brief

August 7, 2002

WASHINGTON -- A failed HIV therapy should be sold instead to treat the liver-destroying hepatitis B virus, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration ruled Tuesday. If the FDA agrees, Gilead Sciences' adefovir would become the first new treatment in years for the estimated 1.2 million Americans with the potentially deadly infection. Hepatitis B, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer, is transmitted through blood, bodily fluids and shared needles and from mother to newborn.